Locally Grown Foods You Should Be Buying

Locally grown foods is a great way to get the best tasting food you possibly can, gain more nutrients from the food you buy and practice some environmentally friendly principles. Depending on where you live it can be a lot harder or easier than average to find farmers that are willing to sell directly to the public. Asking around, or shopping a local farmers market is a great way to determine what purchases you are able to make for your meals.

Being able to swap out all your food purchases for locally sourced ones might not always be possible, but the following are locally grown foods you should be buying.

Meat

Being able to buy freshly butchered meat ensures that you get the best cut and just the one that you want. Small livestock farms are dedicated to raising the best farm animals they can in a safe and healthy way, ensuring that their customers always get the best of the best from them. Being able to talk to farmers about how they raise and feed their livestock gives you the ability to make informed choices about the meat you bring home to eat.

Poultry and Eggs

Like red meat, poultry and eggs have become a widely discussed food source because of the wide use of hormones and additives to make poultry appear healthier than it actually is. Small poultry farms are better able to control the health and diet of their animals and are also a lot more willing to share findings about testing they have done regarding their produce.

Strawberries

Strawberries have a high rate of rot during travel, so farmers and transporters make sure to spray them with fungicides several times leading up to transportation. When you buy local you remove the need for farmers to spray these chemicals on the fruit you will be buying because it will be going straight from the farm to your home.

Apples

Apples are some of the dirtiest fruits around because they are sprayed over and over again for as long as nine months while in storage and awaiting transportation. Apples can last in storage for long periods of time, but all it takes is one bad apple to spoil the bunch so insecticides and other blemish reducing chemicals are applied liberally.

Heather, the mom behind OurKidsMom, is located in western Missouri. She is 3rd grade teacher turned stay at home mom with 4 children: Ethan (9), Emma (10), Joshua (20) and Kaytlin (25). She spends her "free time" at the gym, planning her next travel adventure, blogging, browsing Pinterest for her next craft and reviewing great products for her family and home.

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I always pick apples every year at an orchard in my town. I also go pick strawberries at a strawberry patch. But I do not get my eggs and meat locally. I wonder if there is a place for that. It is so important to be concerned about what we eat. Thanks for the information.